What’s in an accent?

pronskikh

1 year ago

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In this talk, which is essentially a brief review of literature on the topic, I have discussed the controversy between, on the one hand, claims that everyone has an accent and intelligible accents are tolerable and, on the other, that certain foreign accents are perceived in a prejudiced way. I have discussed a known classification of “good” and “bad” accents and its possible explanation, perception of accents in schools, public media, professions. I have mentioned also few known from literature case studies that shed light on accents’ probable influence on career prospects. Finally, I have argued (and that is my original argument and probably a topic of future research) that due to the presence of “boundary objects” and an assembly-line type organization of big science the possible negative impact of foreign accents on scientific work and communication in STEM is substantially alleviated for many roles scientists play.